


Blood In The Water

by suneye



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: (by me), Attempt at Humor, Blood, F/F, Flirting, Little Mermaid Elements, Near Death Experiences, marine biologist!Maia, mermaid au, mermaid!Clary, non-sexual nudity, supportive!everyone else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2020-03-17 01:04:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18954781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suneye/pseuds/suneye
Summary: “I thought you said she was a mermaid.”“She is. Orwas, I don’t know. Maybe I did imagine it.”“You sure it’s the same girl?"“She’s hard to forget."Marine biologist Maia Roberts finds a mermaid at the beach...and accidentally falls in love with her.





	1. Maia Finds A Mermaid

**Author's Note:**

> I have been working on this fic for too long but here it is at last! A mermaid AU in 3 parts (it was supposed to be 1 part but the word count got away from me), inspired in part by every version of _The Little Mermaid_ I've ever seen or read and _Shadowhunters_ itself. Let me know what you think!
> 
> (Warnings for this one are mostly in the tags but just to recap: quite a bit of blood, multiple near-death experiences, and mentions of food and alcohol.)

When Maia agreed to spend the summer at the Lightwood family beach house, “nearly drowning” and “finding a mermaid” weren’t exactly high on her to-do list.

But, hey, plans change, she supposes. And sometimes that change in plans leads to very awkward dinner conversations like this one.

“I know it sounds crazy,” Maia says, trying not to touch the bruise on her temple to remind herself that it’s not - it’s not crazy at all. “But I’m telling you, she was real. Gills and tail and all.”

The first time she told them, Alec, Magnus and Maryse, sitting across the table from her, burst out laughing, only to realize seconds later that she wasn’t making a joke. Then began the worried questions: “how hard did you hit your head?” from Izzy, “are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” from Simon on her other side, “maybe it was a dolphin?” from Maryse. Maia waved them all off, of course. She may have been banged up in the accident and deathly afraid of drowning, but she knew what she saw. Now she can see the inner battle in their eyes: wanting to believe their friend but at the same time, reluctant to give up their own preconceived beliefs about what is and isn’t real.

“Okay,” Magnus not-so-subtly picks up the wine bottle at the center of the table to check its alcohol content before putting it back and turning to her. “I believe you, obviously. But you do realize there is a very high possibility that what you saw was a side effect of your injury, right?”

Maia nods. It hurts her head, which proves Magnus’ point. “Like I said, it’s crazy,” she sighs. “But _something_ pulled me out of the water. At first I thought it was some diver skinny dipping, but, I’m telling you, I did not imagine that tail.”

“Wait,” Izzy giggles. “She was naked? Are you sure it wasn’t just an elaborate fantasy-”

Alec clears his throat, looking pointedly at Izzy as he gestures with his head towards Maryse. Maia thanks her lucky stars for him. “She was real,” she insists, rolling her eyes at Izzy. “And I’m not sitting here begging you guys to believe in the supernatural. Maybe she wasn’t a ‘she’. Maybe she was a new aquatic species or whatever. All I’m asking is that one of you take me out on the boat tomorrow so I can document the spot she - or it, or whatever - could’ve found me.”

They’re all silent for a moment. Then, Simon raises his hand. “Sure. I’ll do it.”

“No!” Luke, Alec, and Maia say at the same time. Simon shrinks back in his chair.

“I drove into a buoy _one_ time!” he exclaims.

“Six times,” Izzy reminds him. “You drove into the _same_ buoy _six_ times.”

Luke flinches at the memory. “You also nearly murdered a seagull. Sorry, kid, but you’re banned from sailing indefinitely.”

“I’ll take you,” Alec offers.

“Thank you.” Maia smiles gratefully at him.

“I don’t think you can ‘murder’ a bird…” Simon mutters.

And just like that, all the attention turns to him, and Maia’s mermaid is already forgotten.

 

It feels a bit like surrendering, admitting the scaled, red-haired creature that saved her life might not have been real, but Maia knows no one will go mermaid hunting with her. Well, they would, but they wouldn’t take it seriously, and the situation is pretty damn serious.

She didn’t tell them the whole story. Maybe if she had, they would have an easier time believing her. Or maybe they would write her off completely - because the detail that Maia has kept to herself is that the _girl_ sang to her.

That was what brought her back from the edge of death: her singing. Maia couldn’t describe the sensation if she tried. She could not recall any words from the song, either, or the girl’s voice, for that matter. But she remembered opening her eyes to what could have passed as an angel: kind eyes, windswept hair, inhuman voice. Maia remembers a gentle hand on her cheek, a smile meant just for her.

Her friends had found her soon after, Alec and Izzy calling her name from somewhere nearby, giving Maia only a few seconds to take in the singing girl’s tail, long, webbed fingers, and what was unmistakably _gills_ on the sides of her neck. Then there was a splash of water, and by the time Alec fell to his knees beside Maia and began checking her over frantically, the mermaid was gone.

“You ready?” Alec asks. He looks calm and handsome where he’s leaning nonchalantly against the doorway in his swimwear, an unzipped hoodie, and Gucci sunglasses. Maia tightens her life jacket with a huff and nods in his direction, trying to also appear calm and gorgeous. She achieves only the latter half.

“Don’t look so freaked out, darling,” Magnus calls as he watches them leave. “You’ve got a life jacket and the forecast promises calm waters. You’ll be fine.”

“But still, be careful!” Simon pipes up, cutting them off halfway to the door to hug Maia goodbye. “Good luck, don’t die, you know the drill.”

Between all the goodbyes and unhelpful but endearing banter, it takes them almost half an hour to actually make it onto the water. When they finally do, Maia does all she knows to do: she tests the water, she takes samples, she snaps pictures of the aquatic life. Alec even dives in once and returns, after several stressful minutes, with simply more pictures of fish and seaweed.

But of course, no mermaid.

“Hopefully we’ll get some answers once we analyze all this data,” Alec says as they sail back to the dock, zipping up his hoodie against the wind. Maia knows he’s just trying to cheer her up. She smiles appreciatively at him, but she’s not very hopeful. The research feels essential, and she has a bit of hope she’ll find something that will prove to her that she’s not crazy. But she didn’t really expect to run into the mer-girl again. It still stings, having failed, but Maia reasons that if the girl really was a previously undiscovered marine species, she wouldn’t show herself multiple times just for Maia.

Having reached shore, Maia packs up her things as Alec docks. He helps her off the boat before kneeling down to tie the ropes.

“You probably think I’m even crazier than before now,” Maia says self-deprecatingly.

“No,” Alec says. “I really think you’ll find some answers in these results.”

“Probably in the form of hallucinogens, huh?”

Alec huffs out a laugh. “I didn’t say that.”

Maia opens her mouth to tease back, but something farther down the beach catches her eye. It’s not immediately noticeable, but just at the edge of where the beach meets the forest that surrounds the property, there is a disturbance in the sand.

A pale disturbance with fiery red hair.

“Alec,” Maia says weakly. He follows her gaze to the slumped figure on the beach and tenses. They share a look and before either of them knows it, they’re bolting down the hill that leads to that particular part of the beach, nearly tripping in their sandals every few steps.

A few feet away from the figure, they stop abruptly, just to take in her sight. It’s a person, all right - most likely a woman, slumped on her side with her limbs splayed at angles that are just slightly odd, her red hair tangled and covering most of her face. There are seaweeds stuck to her arms and in her hair.

She’s not moving.

Maia starts to run towards her again, but Alec’s sudden grip on her shoulder stops her. She is about to protest when she sees it, all over the girl’s hands and on the sand beneath her: blood.

Alec looks around, searching for an attacker or other victims, whipping out his phone to call someone from the house as he does. Maia shakes him off and runs to the girl’s side, dropping to her knees in the blood-stained sand. She grabs the girl’s wrist to search for a pulse. She finds one, though it’s weak, and lets out a sigh of relief before searching the girl’s body for the source of the blood.

Alec joins them, holding the phone between his ear and shoulder as he struggles to pull his hoodie off. “I don’t know,” he’s saying to the person on the other end of the line. “Can you just call an ambulance? And check to see if anyone is in the nearby cottages this weekend?” He finally manages to get his hoodie off and holds it out towards Maia.

“Alec,” Maia says a little breathlessly. “The blood isn’t hers.”

“What?”

“She’s not hurt. No cuts, nothing broken as far as I can tell…not even so much as a bruise.” She takes the jacket from him and drapes it over the girl’s small form. And then, finally, she takes one pale shoulder and flips her over, bringing her face and a strange crystal necklace into view.

It’s her.

All the breath leaves Maia’s lungs at once. It’s like she’s drowning again. She’s _real_ . The mystery girl with the soft voice and gentle touch and piercing eyes is _real_. She doesn’t have gills - or a tail - and she’s even paler than Maia remembers, but it’s her. No question about it.

“Holy shit,” Maia says.

“Don’t tell me…” Alec sighs resignedly. “Alright.” He raises the phone back up to his ear. “Mom, hold off on that ambulance. We’re bringing her home.”

 

Maia stands in the doorway of her bedroom with her arms crossed, watching nervously as Magnus and Izzy examine the girl, using Maryse’s very thorough first-aid kit to ensure her blood pressure is normal and she doesn’t have a concussion or too much water in her lungs. (As it turns out, she has _no_ water in her lungs - a bit of sand in her mouth from lying face-down in it for however long, but nothing else to indicate she was ever in danger of drowning.) Luke and Maryse are downstairs in the living room making phone calls - Maryse to the neighbouring cottages, Luke to his friends at the local police departments. If any tiny redheads wearing costume jewelry (and _only_ costume jewelry) have gone missing anywhere near the lake, they’ll know about it.

Maia doesn’t think any tiny redheads wearing costume jewelry have gone missing recently.

Simon and Alec step up behind her, peeking into the room. Simon raises one eyebrow at the sight of the mystery girl wearing a pair of Maia’s shorts and one of her sports bras, lying down on her bed as Izzy and Magnus whisper softly over her.

“I thought you said she was a mermaid.”

Maia sighs. “She is,” she says. “Or _was_ , I don’t know. Maybe I did imagine it, but, hey, the _girl_ was real. Partial credit?”

“You sure it’s the same girl?"

“She’s hard to forget. She must’ve... _changed_ somehow.”

Simon opens his mouth to say something else, but closes it when Magnus gets up from the girl’s bedside and comes to join them in the doorway.

“We _think_ she’s fine,” Magnus says, sounding strained. “It’s hard to tell, though. I don’t think humans normally breathe like that. But she’s completely uninjured. No bumps or bruises, no cuts or scratches, no concussion, no signs of drowning. It’s almost like she just lay down on the beach to take a nap.”

“Naked and covered in blood?” Alec says flatly. Magnus sighs again.

“Your story’s becoming more and more credible by the second, dear,” he says, touching Maia’s arm lightly. She feels vindicated, but at the same time, very nervous.

Izzy finishes tucking the girl in and joins the group as well, pulling her hair out of its bun as she does. “Yeah, she’s probably a mermaid.”

“I need a drink,” Magnus says. “Everyone, out. Let the poor thing get some sleep.”

“Good idea,” Izzy says as they all step out and shut the door lightly behind them. “I’m gonna get a sample of that blood on her hands to a lab. It’ll be a good lead if it turns out she’s not actually a Disney princess.”

They begin to shuffle down the hallway, all a little tense thinking about the situation at hand. Either mermaids are real, or they have a very messed up girl on their hands. And either way, she’s in some sort of trouble, which means that now, they all are, too.

Maia lingers by the door. She doesn’t like the thought of leaving the girl alone. Maia has so much to say to her, from “ _thank you for saving my life_ ” to “ _what the hell is your deal?_ ” to “ _are you a mermaid?_ ”

Simon appears practically out of nowhere and slides his arm around her. “Come on,” he says, pulling Maia down the hall with him. “Get a drink, calm your nerves.”

“My nerves are calm.”

Simon stops and steps in front of her, sliding his hand down her arm to her wrist and bringing it up to her face. Up close…yeah, okay, she’s shaking. The anxiety of going back in the water mixed with the adrenaline rush of finding out her mystery girl is real - and covered in blood on the beach.

“I’ll stay with her,” Simon promises. “Go take care of yourself.”

Maia pulls him into a quick hug. “You’re the best.”

“I know.” He gives her a little push down the hall. “Now, go, before Magnus’ cocktails run out. You know how much Maryse likes those things.”

 

Three hours later, the girl wakes up.

It’s Luke’s turn sitting by her bedside. He was the one who decided they shouldn’t leave her unsupervised, after his and Maryse’s search for a missing persons matching her description came up empty. Maryse suggested they get the police involved, and most of them agreed, but no one moved to make the call. Maia was glad - calling the cops on the girl would feel too much like betraying her.

The girl wakes up with a loud gasp and thrashes so hard that she falls off the bed, knocking almost everything off the bedside table on her way down. The crash is loud enough to be heard through the whole house, and within seconds, Maia and Simon are bursting into the room, Magnus and Izzy at their heels.

The commotion does little to help mystery girl’s state or Luke’s attempts at calming her down. The girl struggles on the ground, legs tangled up in the bedsheets, arms flailing, eyes darting here and there and everywhere as if searching for a threat. She’s breathing strangely, like she’s taking in enough air, but doesn’t know what to do with it.

Her eyes fall on Maia standing frozen by the door, and they soften.

Luke notices. “Maia, get in here,” he says under his breath. Maia does, feeling everybody else’s eyes on her - most of all the girl’s.

“Um, hey,” Maia says awkwardly. “Are you okay? What’s your name?”

The girl opens her mouth, then closes it again without making it a sound, looking a little disappointed. Her gaze never leaves Maia.

Maia leans over the bed and offers the girl a hand. She hesitantly takes it and lets herself be pulled halfway back up to the bed before slipping and falling on her back. It’s almost like-

Maia sighs internally: it’s almost like she doesn’t know how to use her legs.

Maia helps her out by crossing over to the other side of the bed and picking her up. The girl- mermaid- whatever - immediately wraps her arms around Maia’s neck...which makes putting her back down on the bed somewhat of an awkward situation. Maia compromises by gently untangling the girl’s arms from her and sitting on the bed facing her.

“Are you hurt?” she asks; still no answer. “When we found you on the beach, it looked like you were hurt. Did something...uh...happen?”

The girl stares at her with those intense eyes. Slowly, she opens her mouth and silently mouths, “beach”. Her hand flies to her throat.

“Oh, do you want some water?”

Before Maia’s even finished her sentence, Simon bolts down the hall, returning barely thirty seconds later with a bottle of water. Luke takes it from him and uncaps it. He holds it out towards the girl. She doesn’t even look in his direction.

“Water,” Maia tells her, pointing at the bottle in Luke’s hand. “Aren’t you thirsty? You swallowed up a bit of sand…”

The girl finally looks away from her to take the bottle from Luke, bringing it up to her lips and only spilling most of it on herself as she drinks. The others exchange a confused look while they wait for her to finish. After emptying most of the bottle, the girl simply drops it on the bed, spilling the rest on the mattress, and smiles at Maia.

“Um…” unnerved by her intense gaze, Maia clears her throat. “So…what’s your name?”

The girl opens her mouth again, but instead of speaking, simply huffs exasperatedly. Her hand flies to her throat again. And Maia can practically _hear_ the lightbulb go on above Simon’s head.

“Oh!” Simon exclaims, stepping further into the room; the girl turns sharply to him, either consciously or unconsciously moving closer to Maia as she does. “You can’t speak, can you?”

The girl beams and points at him, relieved and elated that someone finally understands her. When Simon sits down on the bed, she doesn’t protest or move away. Maia wonders what happened to her voice, because the last time they met, this girl _sang_ to her. And her voice was angelic.

“Okay, so, Luke owes me five bucks,” Simon goes on. “‘Cause I bet him this was actually real-life _The Little Mermaid_ and he said-”

“Simon!” Luke snaps.

“-that. Exactly. Anyways, how about we ask you a few yes-or-no questions and you just nod or shake your head in response?” As he says “nod” and “shake”, he demonstrates the actions. “Nod for yes, shake for no. Sound good?”

The girl nods.

“Great,” Maia says, grabbing her attention again - as intense as those eyes are, Maia quite enjoys it when they’re looking at her. “First question: are you hurt at all?”

The girl slowly shakes her head.

“Good. I’m really glad to hear that. Are you…in trouble? Did someone _try_ to hurt you?”

A moment’s hesitation, then a reluctant nod.

“Did you come here to get help?”

A look of complete devastation overtakes the girl’s features. Looking down at her hands, she shakes her head very, very slowly. Maia swallows hard.

“Were you running away?”

The speed with which the girl’s head snaps up, her heartbroken expression mixing with a furious one, is almost inhuman. She lunges forward, leaving barely any space between herself and Maia and Simon, and silently _hisses_ . Then, instead of shaking her head, she mouths “ _no_ ” over and over again, as if she is screaming it. But no sound comes out.

“Okay, calm down,” Maia says quickly, her hands instinctively going to the girl’s shoulders to rub comfortingly. “I’m sorry for asking.”

The girl relaxes at her touch, leaning into her. Maia looks to see Izzy and Luke standing closer to her now, feet apart and shoulders tense, as if ready to attack. Maia startles - the possibility of this tiny red-haired _mermaid_ attacking her hadn’t even occurred to her until now. She also sees Maryse standing in the doorway, a phone clutched tightly in her hand, eyes narrowed and calculating. Alec is standing behind her with the same look in his eyes. Even Simon has one arm raised protectively in front of Maia.

Magnus, on the other hand, walks swiftly from his spot by the door to stand by the bed, leaning down to the girl’s height. He smiles. “Hey,” he says softly, and she calms down entirely when she looks at him. “We wanna help you, okay? I know you’ve been through a lot, and it’s hard to communicate with us, so why don’t we take it slow? Do you have a name?” She nods. “Is there a way for you to tell us what it is?”

She frowns and shrugs.

“How the hell is she going to tell us when she can’t speak?” Izzy hisses.

“I don’t know!” Magnus mumbles in her direction. “I was hoping it was ‘Pearl’ or ‘Skye’ or something.”

“I’ll take a guess,” Maia offers. “Um…Susan? Sarah? Jane? Rose?” Each one is a hard _no_ , of course. “Martha-?”

“Are you just naming _Doctor Who_ companions?” Simon asks.

“You got a better idea?”

The others consider for a moment, then sheepishly join in while the nameless girl looks between them in confusion.

“Jo?”

“Barbara?”

“Amelia? It’s gotta be Amelia, right?”

“Romana?”

“Clara?” Luke suggests. The girl turns to him, eyes wide.

“Your name is Clara?” Izzy asks; the girl shakes her head. “Okay, so...something close to Clara?” A nod.

Magnus thinks hard for a moment. “Claire?” No. “Claudia?” Also no. “God, I don’t know- Clary?” The girl nods frantically at the last one, with so much enthusiasm that she nearly jumps off the bed. Magnus smiles at her excitement. “Alright,” he chuckles. “Hi, Clary. I’m Magnus.”

Before they can can ask another question, the girl looks up and is suddenly transfixed by the window behind the bed. She drops off the bed and drags herself over to the window, clinging to the bedposts and the walls to pull herself up. She rests one hand against the glass and simply watches the ocean for a moment.

Luke is the first to shake off his shock. “Are you okay?” he asks, taking a step closer to her.

The girl taps on the window frantically, looking between Luke and the scene outside and mouthing words Maia can’t understand.

“I think she wants to go to the water,” Maryse says quietly.

 

So they take her to the water.

“That’s where we found you,” Maia says, pointing to the red-stained beach a little ways past the dock they’re currently at. Behind her, Luke is carrying the girl, wearing Alec’s hoodie now as protection against the evening breeze. She taps him frantically on the shoulder until he sets her down.

Maia helps steady Clary, who almost falls over multiple times, but seems to finally grasp the concept of what legs are used for by studying Maia’s as they walk to the edge of the water.

She takes one step by herself, then two.

Then she looks at the others to make sure there is enough space between her and them, before diving into the dark waters and disappearing from view.

Simon and Maia let out startled yells, dropping to their knees at the edge of the dock. Luke and Izzy are already stripping off their shirts, ready to jump in and pull her back out if necessary.

For a very long moment, the water remains dark, its surface undisturbed. Then, an air bubble rises to the top. Then another, and another, and then Clary’s head and arms flail wildly out of the water. She pants and chokes for a moment before remembering to tread the water with her arms. She coughs a few more times and looks around in distress and confusion. Maia tries to reach for her, but she pulls away.

“What are you doing?!” Simon demands, glasses threatening to slide off his face and into the water.

Clary just glares at him. She lowers her head back into the water and they watch the faint shape of her start to swim away-

-only to reemerge moments later, coughing and spluttering again.

“She knows she can’t breathe underwater, right?” Alec mutters to Izzy.

“Actually,” Izzy says. “I don’t think she does.”

“Clary, you’re gonna hurt yourself!” Maia cries, reaching out for her again. “Get out of the water before you drown.”

When Clary still doesn’t listen to them, Luke pushes Simon and Maia out of the way to lean down from the docks himself and pull her to shore. Surprisingly, she doesn’t resist. When Luke pulls her up on the wooden dock and gently sits her down, she’s shaking, but her eyes are still on the water, narrowed and determined, as if she’s planning something.

“Hey, Clary, look at me for a sec,” Luke whispers, touching her hand gently to grab her attention. “Where were you trying to go?”

“You know she can’t answer you,” Alec grumbles. He’s retrieved a blanket from one of the boats, and he tosses it to Simon, who drapes it around Clary’s trembling shoulders.

“Look, Clary,” Luke says again. “We wanna help you, I promise. But we can’t do that if you drown. And the thing that tried to hurt you in the water, what if it’s still out there? You can’t jump back in the water at a disadvantage and let it _kill_ you. Give us a few hours to figure this out, and we’ll see how we can help. Okay?”

And, well, Clary’s not really in any position to argue.


	2. Clary Falls For A Human

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings again for mentions of blood, food, and alcohol (usually not at the same time). also probably inaccurate science. sorry scientists.

Izzy and Maia help Clary into a loose,  _ dry  _ sundress and wrap her hair up in a towel to get it dry. Clary looks confused by it all, but doesn’t protest. She seems quieter, weaker, after the incident with the water.

“Chin up, buttercup,” Izzy says, tilting Clary’s chin up with her finger for emphasis. “We’ve got your back. We’re gonna figure this out.”

Logically, Izzy and Maia both know that they don’t have all the facts yet and there is every chance nothing will work out fine - they don’t even know if they can trust Clary yet. But deep inside, they both also know that they  _ will  _ do what it takes to help her. Clary seems to know, too, because she gives Izzy the slightest of smiles at that.

A knock on the open door makes the three of them turn. Magnus pokes his head in “Dinner time!” he announces. “Alec was stress-cooking, so be nice. Or else.”

Alec  _ has  _ been stress-cooking, which means the kitchen is a mess, but he’s followed the recipe closely enough that the food tastes quite good.  When it turns out Clary has trouble sitting on the wooden dining chairs, they all opt to eat in the living room instead. Luke and Maryse take the couch, Alec and Magnus squeeze into one armchair together, and the rest of them sit on couch cushions on the floor.

“Do you need help with that?” Maia asks when yet another string of pasta slips through Clary’s fork and lands on Maryse’s expensive decorative pillows. Clary scrunches her face up in annoyance and tries again.

“So,” Maryse says quietly, watching them while barely touching her food but drinking like her life depends on it. “Are you guys sure we shouldn’t call the police?”

“I  _ am  _ the police,” Luke points out. “Besides, how are we gonna explain…” His eyes travel back to Clary, who’s made a lot of progress on her food now that she’s tossed her fork aside. He doesn’t need to finish the thought.

“We could still call it in,” Alec suggests. “Say we saw someone bleeding on the shore while we were on our boat, but when we docked, she was gone. Give an overall description, see if they have any leads.”

“I feel like that’s probably illegal,” Magnus says, but doesn’t double check with Luke. “Besides, she said she was in trouble. What if she’s running from someone - an abuser or a killer?”

Playing devil’s advocate, Alec says, “What if she  _ is  _ the killer?”

Maia lets them discuss amongst themselves. She’s too busy teaching Clary how to use a napkin to weigh in. Once Clary’s wiped her face clean of tomato sauce, she chugs down all her water, and then the rest of Simon’s. She catches Maia looking at her and smiles. Some colour is starting to return to her cheeks. Maia wants to reach out and hold them.

They’re not going to call the police or treat Clary as a suspect, no matter what they say. They’re going to save this girl. Whatever it takes.

 

Night creeps up on them, and it brings with itself new challenges and new hushed arguments. Alec and Luke aren’t thrilled about leaving Clary unsupervised for the whole night, and they’re even less enthusiastic about it when Maia reveals she’s going to be sleeping on the floor beside her. But Maia insists that Clary would never hurt her and refuses to compromise, so they begrudgingly drop the issue and instead carry a mattress into her room for her.

“One weird noise out of that room and I’m running in guns blazing,” Simon says to Maia as they get ready for bed in the bathroom. “Not that I don’t think you can take her, but I keep thinking what if she has, like, hidden shark teeth, or evil mermaid powers only activated by moonlight, or-”

“You honestly think she has ‘evil mermaid powers’?”

“I don’t know, maybe! I just mean we don’t know anything about her, and normally I wouldn’t judge, but I can’t stand the thought of you being in any potential danger.”

Maia finishes fixing her hair in the mirror and turns to him. “I’m not in any danger,” she assures him.

“How could you possibly be sure of that?”

“I just am.” She is because her mermaid’s song is still ringing in her ears, and she doesn’t know how or why but it makes her feel safe. It’s already saved her life once.

Simon sighs, but nods and waves goodnight anyway, retreating to his room. Maia finishes up and goes to her own room.

She almost trips over herself in the doorway: Clary is lying on her side on the bed, flipping through one of Maia’s books. She’s wearing one of Izzy’s loose nightgowns, and what little height she has over the other girl leaves her legs almost completely exposed. Her hair is in a loose ponytail, her eyes focused on the pictures in the book, one strap of her nightgown threatening to slip off her shoulder and-

Yeah, okay, Maia can admit it: the mermaid is hot.

“Hey,” Maia says, walking in and kneeling on the mattress on the floor; Clary glances at her and smiles. “You like that book?”

Clary nods and raises the book with one hand, using the other to point at a picture of…an aurora.

For some reason (well, for  _ obvious  _ reasons) Maia had assumed Clary had been looking at one of her marine biology books, or at least a magazine with a picture of the ocean on the cover or something. Instead she’s flipping through a book about the geography of…Canada? There is a picture of a moose on the cover.

Looking at Clary’s wide, excited eyes, Maia is struck by the possibility that this girl is just like them. Just like  _ her _ . Enchanted by things she can’t explain, desperate to learn about the world around her - and the world she might never see in person. The same way terror and fascination blurred together the more Maia learned about the deep, dark, mysterious ocean, Clary is finding the beauty in nature that’s bigger than her and hard to explain. Even if that beauty is out of her reach and the closest she can get to it is a picture in a book. The northern lights. The Mariana Trench. An active volcano.

Terrifying and fascinating at the same time.

Like mermaids.

Like Clary.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to see one of those in real life,” Maia says. “I’ve heard they’re even more beautiful in person. Have you ever seen anything like it?”

Clary shakes her head. She goes back to staring at the picture as Maia relays her limited knowledge of auroras to her, but at some point she lays the book back down, forgotten, and stares at Maia instead.

 

The next morning, Alec and Maryse have made pancakes, and the sweet smell carries through the house, drawing everyone to the kitchen. When Maia and Izzy finish dressing Clary and brushing her hair and get her there, Luke is pouring Maryse a cup of coffee. And though they rarely show physical affection around their kids, she thanks him with one arm around his waist and a kiss on the lips, their guards down in the early morning breeze and the smell of fresh breakfast around them.

Maia politely turns away, only to find Clary staring at them in confusion. But before either of them can bring it up, Alec is ushering them to the living room floor and placing full, delicious-smelling plates down in front of them. Clary once again ignores her cutlery in favour of digging in with her bare hands. Alec sees the sticky maple-syrup-flavoured disaster waiting to happen and stops her, cutting up the pancakes for her instead and instructing Maia to help her with her fork.

(At least it’s easier than the pasta.)

“So,” Maryse starts conversationally once they’re all seated. “Did everybody sleep well?”

They make small-talk like that for a while, until Izzy finally decides to address the one topic they’re all actually thinking about: “I was gonna drive into town again today. That blood sample I dropped off yesterday must’ve yielded some results. If not, I can test it myself.”

“I’ll go with you,” Luke says. “I have some friends at the local police station. I’ll see what I can find out about any missing ‘Clary’s without raising suspicion.”

Even he doesn’t sound convinced there is a point to that: they’ve all long given up on any human explanation for Clary’s state./

So after breakfast, he, Izzy, and Maryse take the cars out to town to do their detective work. Alec, meanwhile, decides that Clary is harmless enough so long as someone is keeping an eye on her, and drags Magnus off to the terrace to relax, leaving Simon and Maia “in charge”.

They take that to mean they should be teaching Clary how to human.

Maia sits on her desk chair, watching Clary stand shakily and Simon stay close and on-guard, ready to catch her at any moment. Simon’s concern is sweet but unnecessary - the floor is carpeted and Clary is sticking close to things she can grab to balance herself. Besides, she’s  _ tiny _ . It’s not like she’s got a huge distance to fall down from.

“You’re, uh, you’re really getting the hang of this,” Simon says unconvincingly. “Now just take one step…”

Clary takes three: across the room to Maia, before very deliberately falling onto her.

Maia raises her arms to catch her, almost toppling out of the chair herself. Clary once again wraps her arms around Maia’s neck, her legs going completely limp, as Maia holds her by the waist. She looks up at Maia from under long dark lashes and  _ smirks _ .

For a brief moment, Maia is frozen. She wasn’t aware mermaids knew how to flirt. She breathes in the smallest gasp, wishing she knew what to do with Clary so close, almost in her lap, eyes sharp and sultry, lips parted slightly, strands of wavy orange hair on her cheekbones and the freckles on her nose. She looks so much more real than she did before, and it’s not just the lack of gills and mermaid tail. Her skin is a little warmer than on the beach and when Alec and Maia found her again, and even her eyes have lost some of their otherworldly shine. And on top of that, she appears to care for them - or Maia, at least. She’s so much more  _ human _ .

Maia blinks. And then Clary blinks. And then Maia notices Simon trying to discreetly exit the room and clears her throat. And then the moment is gone.

“Need a hand?” Maia asks, trying to laugh off the heat rising to her cheeks. She holds Clary under the arms and helps her up. Clary looks a little disappointed, but doesn’t protest as Maia straightens her up and they stand together.

A new problem arises: Clary still isn’t holding herself up on her legs, so she’s still slumped against Maia, their bodies pressed together from chests to knees. And with both their clothing so thin to combat the summer heat…well.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway startles them. Clary turns toward the window, searching for the source of the sound, letting go of Maia so quickly she almost loses her balance. Maia and Simon grab her around the waist, steadying her once more. They lead her to the foyer, where Izzy is walking in, shrugging off her scarf and sunglasses. She pauses when she sees the three of them stumble into view with curious looks in their eyes, and breaks into a grin.

“Hey,” she nods her head towards Clary. “You learning to use those things?”

Clary smiles brightly back.

“Did you manage to get those blood samples tested?” Maia asks.

Izzy nods. “I still have to wait for some results, but I ran as many tests as I could, and…” Her eyes flicker between the three of them. “It’s…not human. Actually, it was unlike anything I’ve seen before. But that’s all I know for now.”

Maia nods. This would all be a lot easier if they could somehow communicate with Clary. But she can’t speak, was confused when offered a pen and paper, and, as Magnus has discovered, doesn’t know sign language. So they’re forced to rely on yes-or-no questions and context clues. Maia just wishes they could find out what’s happened to Clary, because something is clearly  _ very  _ wrong.

Maia doesn’t even want to think about what would happen if whatever was after Clary comes after her friends.

 

An hour later, Maia lets her legs dangle over the edge of the dock, the tips of her toes just barely touching the cold water. The ocean isn’t nearly as scary when she has a solid surface underneath her. And a mermaid at her side.

Clary is lying on her stomach, both hands swiveling underwater, her hair dancing on the little waves her arms create. She knows now not to put her head underwater (and Maia thinks that’s equal parts fascinating and terrifying, how quickly she’s accepted the major change in her biology, her very being), but she can’t seem to be able to stay away from the water too long. Which makes sense, seeing as she’s a  _ goddamn mermaid _ .

Maia honestly doesn’t know what to make of that. It’s impossible. It’s a major scientific discovery. It changes everything.

It’s a scared young woman with somewhere to be and no way to get there.

“That blood…” Maia starts before she can think better of it; Clary stills momentarily. “Did you…hurt somebody? Or…”

Clary pulls her hands out of the water and sits on her knees before shaking her head slowly. She looks disappointed about it.

“Then…whatever- or whoever- tried to hurt you…did it hurt someone else?”

Clary looks at her, eyes wide and vulnerable and filling quickly with tears. She doesn’t need to answer. She doesn’t need to say or do or show anything for Maia to be able to picture it: Clary, tail and gills all, crying out as someone - someone she cared about, someone she loved - is torn to pieces, blood flowing everywhere, turning the water red. 

It’s a harrowing mental image, and Maia shakes her head to be rid of it.

Instead, she decides to change the subject by pointing at the necklace Clary is still wearing. It’s simple: a length of rope with a large purple rock hanging from the middle of it. “That’s pretty,” Maia says. “Where’d you get it?”

When Clary’s expression doesn’t change, Maia gets her answer.

Without really thinking, Maia slides closer to her and presses their shoulders together in an attempt at comfort. Clary rests her head on Maia’s shoulder and sighs. And at that point, Maia can’t help but put her arm around the other girl and pull her closer.

They stay like that for a while. Until the wind picks up. Until the sun begins to set, casting an orange glow over the water and over Clary’s pale face. Until Clary closes her eyes, face turned upwards to the sunlight, and breathes in the sea air, and feels the warmth of the setting sun on her skin, and falls asleep against Maia.

 

Magnus comes out to check on them. He smiles softly when he sees Clary dozing off, her head now in Maia’s lap.

“Did she try to make a break for it?” he asks.

“Not even once,” Maia says. “We promised we’d help. I think she’s counting on that.”

Magnus kneels beside her and gently lifts Clary up in his arms, carrying her all the way back to the house with ease. He sets her down on the couch and drapes a throw over her.

Maia finds Izzy and pulls her aside while the others argue in the kitchen over what movie to watch - a terribly mundane conversation that strangely enough, helps Maia feel more at ease. “I think I know who the blood belonged to,” she whispers to Izzy. “You said it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, right? I think it was another mermaid. Or whatever Clary is. Something or someone hurt them in front of her. I think earlier, she was trying to go back in the water to save them.”

Izzy nods thoughtfully, absorbing the new theories. “Who do you think it was?” she asks.

“I don’t know.”

“Someone close to her, though?”

“I’m guessing, yeah. Whoever it was gave her that necklace.”

“The necklace…” Izzy repeats thoughtfully, walking slowly back to Clary’s couch. “There’s something weird going on with that thing. If I could just…”

She reaches out to touch the stone to get a better look at it, but before she has a chance to, the front door opens and Luke and Maryse’s loud conversation about pretzels drifts in, startling Clary awake. She sits up and rubs her eyes, looking irritated until she spots Maia again.

Luke and Maryse recount their day: they haven’t found anything - not that anyone expected them to - but they’ve bought food to grill, so the day wasn’t a  _ complete  _ waste.

“We bought some fish,” Luke says. “We could grill those. Clary would like that, right?”

“Probably,” Simon glances between him and Clary. “Unless it’s super offensive ‘cause we’re eating her friends.”

“Or it’s cannibalism, ‘cause she’s part-fish,” Maryse suggests.

“Unless  _ that’s  _ offensive,” Izzy says.

Luke sighs. “Why don’t we just ask her?”

As they turn to do so, Magnus suddenly grabs Maia’s hand and pulls her after him, briefly mentioning something about needing help with getting wine from the cellar. But down in the cellar, he barely even looks at the wines.

“Is there something you’re not telling us, dear?”

Maia raises an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“About you and the little seabiscuit,” Magnus says (referring to Clary, Maia assumes). “Did something happen between you two? She seems very…attached to you.”

Maia feels herself flush again. She doesn’t know how to describe what there is between them. She doesn’t know if Clary is flirting with her - or if mermaids even  _ can  _ flirt. She doesn’t know how to explain the attraction she feels towards the other girl despite knowing the danger she brings, despite the fact that they’ve never had a verbal conversation.

She crosses her arms over her chest. “I don’t know what you mean, Magnus.”

“Uh-huh…” It’s Magnus’ turn to raise an eyebrow. “I know that face, Maia. I’ve seen that face in the mirror more times than I can count. That’s the face of falling for someone when you  _ know  _ you should know better. I suppose I’m just curious why you’ve had it on so often recently.”

Maia stares at him, and considers, for a very long moment. Then she looks down, arms still crossed, and takes a deep breath. It’s  _ Magnus _ . She was bound to tell him eventually.

“I was dying,” she says, quietly. “When I hit the water, I blacked out, and when I woke up, I knew immediately that I was going to die. I didn’t want to, but…well, it’s really hard to fight when you know it’s hopeless.” She takes in another breath, and this time, is tempted to smile. “Then there was this girl looking down at me. The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. And her eyes were so kind…and she was touching my cheek, and she was so gentle… I remember thinking that if I was going to die right then and there, at least she was there to make me feel better, you know? But then…then she started  _ singing _ . And I wasn’t okay with dying anymore.”

She shakes her head, blinks away tears, looks up at Magnus. “I don’t know, it probably doesn’t make any sense, but…she made me feel  _ strong _ . No one’s ever made me feel strong before, not like that. Not like I could be scared and vulnerable too and still keep fighting. And I think I make her feel safe. I don’t know if that’s what love feels like, but-”

“That’s what being loved feels like,” Magnus says, a small, sad smile on his lips.

Maia doesn’t know how to process that, so she decides to change the subject by grabbing the nearest bottle of wine and making her way back upstairs. As always, Magnus doesn’t push, but when they’re all pouring drinks later, he gently squeezes her shoulder and gives her a knowing, reassuring look.

 

As it turns out, not only  _ can  _ Clary eat fish, but she rather enjoys it. She listens to Luke talk about barbecuing for close to a full ten minutes and invites herself to sit between him and Maryse while they eat, constantly nudging him for another serving.

She’s still all smiles as Izzy once again helps her change into sleep clothes and braids her hair (the wine might have helped). But by the time Maia finishes getting ready and returns to their-  _ her _ \- fuck it,  _ their _ \- room, she’s slouched against the windowsill, staring longingly (no, not longingly -  _ helplessly _ ) out at the beach with tears in her eyes.

Without thinking, Maia walks up to her and puts her arms around her.

Clary tenses for a moment, looks back in confusion, then relaxes and leans back against Maia, letting out a soft breath.

“I may not know your story,” Maia murmurs into Clary’s soft hair; it smells like flowers and saltwater at the same time. “But I know how you’re feeling right now. I’ve been there. That’s how I know that even though it feels like it right now, you’re  _ not  _ powerless. And you’re definitely not alone, okay? I promise you, we’ll figure this out. Together.”

Clary turns in her arms until their eyes meet. They stand like that for a moment, this time nothing awkward or sexual or even remotely flirtatious in the way their bodies are pressed together. Then Clary leans forward and gently places her chin on top of Maia’s shoulder, her hands sliding over Maia’s waist until her arms are wound around her, palms flat on Maia’s back.

It takes Maia a moment to realize this is an embrace. But as soon as she does, she melts into it. She holds Clary close, buries her face in the other’s neck, and sighs contentedly. She realizes, and is surprisingly calm when she does, that she wants to protect Clary, and comfort Clary, and make Clary happy.

But it doesn’t end there: she wants Clary to protect  _ her  _ and comfort  _ her  _ and make  _ her  _ happy, too.

Something Magnus said earlier plays over and over in her head, but she pays it no mind. She helps Clary into bed, and lies down beside her, and watches her fall asleep.

 

Maia is the first one awake the next morning. She gently (and somewhat reluctantly) removes Clary’s arm from around her waist and gets out of bed. She throws on some clothes, lets her hair down, and goes downstairs to make breakfast. She doesn’t have the time to bake cookies, and she doesn’t have Alec’s knack for making perfect breakfast foods, so she settles for just toast and coffee.

As it brews, she thinks about the night before, and what it meant. But she doesn’t get very far: she keeps getting distracted by memories of Clary’s arms around her and the smell of Clary’s hair and the way Clary looked at her. The constant stream of memories prevent Maia from being able to think the situation through logically, and eventually she decides that there  _ is  _ no logic to be applied to the situation. It just is what it is.

Maia is falling for a mermaid.

The last of the toast popping up at the exact same time that Magnus enters the room, yawning and stretching, startles her out of her thoughts. She turns and grabs two mugs from the cupboard.

“Morning,” she says to Magnus as she pours their drinks. “Sleep well?”

“Like a log,” Magnus says. “How about you, sweetheart?”

“Fine. So, what’s the plan today?”

Magnus sips his coffee thoughtfully. “I was thinking of taking the boat out-”

“Hard pass.”

“-further than usual. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find something to help with the Clary situation.”

“Like a helpful musical number from Sebastian the crab?”

Magnus sticks his tongue out at her.

“Well,” Maia sighs. “If you go, I’m coming with you. But let’s talk it over with Clary first?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Thanks. I’ll go get her. She can still barely walk, I’d hate for her to wake up alone.”

 

By the time the girls make it back downstairs, the sun has started to come up properly and the kitchen is once again empty. Magnus is out on the porch, sipping coffee and laughing about something while sitting in Alec’s lap.

Clary sits on the counter, leaning against the cupboards, and keeps looking between them and Maia as the latter prepares jam and toast for them all. After a few moments, she reaches out and taps Maia on the shoulder to grab her attention.

“What’s up?” Maia asks.

Clary points out the window, giving Maia a confused look. Maia looks to see the happy couple even happier than before: Alec has one hand on Magnus’ waist and Magnus has one hand cupping Alec’s face and they’re sharing smiles and slow, sweet kisses.

“Oh, um,” Maia quickly helps Clary down from the counter and leads her to the living room to give the couple some privacy. “That’s…they’re kissing. Do you have kissing in…?” She stops herself before she can say “Atlantis”. That’s probably not very tasteful. Or accurate. “Where you’re from, I mean?”

Clary tilts her head to the side.

“Kissing,” Maia says again, and finds herself having to look away at Clary’s intense, curious gaze. “Sometimes, when people like each other, they kiss.”

Another confused frown.

“Romantically,” Maia clarifies. “Like…when you’re a couple. Or just for fun. If you think someone’s attractive or nice and you wanna be close to them like that, you kiss them. It’s like some mating thing- or it was, and now it’s just a thing humans do for fun, to show that they like each other.”

Clary thinks for a moment, then steps forward, places her hands on either side of Maia’s face, and kisses her.

Maia can taste coffee and saltwater on Clary’s lips, and it’s a strange combination, but for some reason it makes her grab Clary by the waist and pull her closer, deepening the kiss. Clary wraps her arms around Maia’s neck and opens her mouth ever so slightly, giving Maia just enough room to guide it open with her own lips. Clary reciprocates every action, and there is not even a breath of air between them.

At last, Maia pulls back to look at Clary. She clears her throat, feeling her cheeks flush. “For someone who just learned what that was, you’re a damn good kisser,” she says.

Clary smiles. “I’m a quick learner.”


	3. Maia Saves Her Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: the title becomes a little too relevant in this chapter, as do the tags. specifically: (mild spoilers!) stabbings, mentions of bones breaking, mentions of mutilation, and near-death experiences.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this final chapter and sorry for such a long wait!

For a long moment, it is very, very quiet.

Then Maia steps back suddenly, almost crashing into the couch as she does, and Clary lets her arms drop uselessly from around her.

“Oh my god…” Maia says, one hand over her mouth, torn between laughing and screaming. Clary just  _ spoke _ . Clary  _ kissed  _ her and then  _ spoke _ . “You…  _ how _ ?!”

Clary raises a finger to her lips. “I…” she trails the finger down to her throat. “I don’t know.”

“Did I…did I  _ kiss  _ your vocal cords back into gear?”

“You might have,” Clary laughs, and it’s a beautiful sound. “Oh, there is  _ so  _ much I have to tell you!” She stumbles forward and closes the space between them again, hands on Maia’s shoulders; Maia instinctively wraps her arms around Clary’s waist. “Thank you for saving me,” Clary says sincerely. “And thank you for taking care of me. And it seems as if I owe you a thanks for lifting the curse as well.”

Maia blinks. “You’re…welcome…”

“I’m Clarissa, by the way. But you can keep calling me Clary.”

“I’m Maia,” Maia replies, even though Clary obviously already knows.

“Maia,” Clary repeats, and the name sounds so beautiful falling from her lips that Maia gets too enamoured with it and almost doesn’t realize that Luke has entered the room and is now yawning and stretching and waving at them on his way to the kitchen.

“Morning,” he calls. “Sorry to interrupt.” Maia suddenly remembers her close proximity to Clary and feels herself blush.

“No worries,” Clary tells Luke before Maia can come up with a retort.

Luke freezes in his tracks and stares at her unblinkingly for several seconds. Maia and Clary stifle their giggles, Clary turning in Maia’s arms so her back is to the other girl, and watch him struggle to process for several seconds.

“You can talk?” he asks at last.

“Yes,” Clary says proudly, “I can.”

Luke opens and closes his mouth a few times, his face somewhere between smiling and, possibly, screaming. Next thing Maia knows, Clary's being pulled out of her arms and into his. Clary laughs into the hug and when they pull apart, he keeps staring at her, awestruck.

“How did this happen?”

“We don’t know,” Maia says, because suggesting “true love’s kiss” would just be embarrassing.

“Well, this is amazing,” Luke says. “Do you think you can tell us what happened now, Clary?”

Clary’s grin fades into a serious, determined expression and she nods. Luke takes a few minutes to gather the others in the living room, shove cups of coffee into their hands, and deflect all their questions while Clary settles into an armchair and braces herself for their reactions.

“Clary has something to say,” Maia announces at last.

Simon, stifling a yawn, raises one eyebrow. “ _ Say _ ?”

“Yes,” Luke says, motioning for him to be quiet. “Go on, Clary.”

“Um, well-” Clary starts - and is immediately interrupted by a chorus of gasps, Isabelle choking on her drink, and Alec instinctively grabbing onto Magnus’ arm. Luke and Maia aggressively shush them all and gesture for her to continue.

“My name is Clarissa,” Clary says. “I’m not really…like you guys.”

“You’re a mermaid,” Maryse mumbles, dumbfounded. “Luke, she’s a fucking mermaid.”

“Um, yeah, I guess,” Clary goes on, brushing her hair back nervously. “I don’t normally live on the surface. I mean, I visit sometimes, but there’s rarely people anywhere when I come up. And I can’t exactly  _ walk  _ around, either.”

“So you  _ do  _ have a tail?” Simon asks.

“I think that's what it's called, yes.”

“And gills?”

“Yes.”

“And-”

Alec silences him with an arm in front of his face. “Wait,” he says. “Then what happened? Why did you show up to save Maia and how do you have…” Instead of finishing the thought, he simply gestures at Clary’s legs.

“Well, I saw Maia while I was swimming and couldn’t just let her drown,” Clary says. “As for  _ these _ , I think they showed up because of my mother.” And, so absently it’s as if she doesn’t realize she’s doing it, she reaches up and touches her necklace. “We were under attack. She said something to me, gave me this necklace and told me to never take it off, and… Well, next thing I knew, I was waking up here and I had legs.”

Maia doesn’t know why, but from the way Clary swallows after that, she gathers that the girl’s left out a part of her story. A crucial, bloody part.

“Who attacked you?” Luke asks.

“My father,” Clary says. “He’s the one who took my voice as well.” Her eyes narrow. “That’s why I have to go back. To kill him.”

Maia blinks at that. But Clary looks serious. The sweet little mermaid has really just been trying to go back home to murder her father this whole time.

For some reason, it’s not as shocking as it should be.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Maryse asks. “You’d have a disadvantage in an underwater fight. And if he was willing to curse his own daughter, who knows how far he’ll go if you provoke him.”

“I  _ know  _ how far he’s willing to go for power,” Clary snaps. “I can go _further_. I’m  not  running. I owe it to my mother to go back.”

Izzy leans forward and places a hand on top of Clary’s. “Do you think you can save her?”

Clary says nothing.

“Oh,” Izzy squeezes Clary's hand tightly. “ _Avenge_ her?”

Clary takes in a shaky breath, but still doesn't answer.

“Clary,” Izzy says softly. “We need to know our odds before we rush into this.”

Clary is silent for another moment. Then, she slowly raises her head to meet Izzy’s eyes and cocks her head to the side. “ _ We _ ?”

“Of course,” Luke says.

“You didn’t think we’d just toss you back in the water and let you be on your merry way, did you?” Magnus adds teasingly.

Clary’s eyes, quickly filling with tears, meet Maia’s. There is a question behind them.

“I went on a boat for you,” Maia says. “Murder isn’t that much of a stretch, if I’m being honest.”

Clary smiles and throws herself off the chair and into Maia’s arms.

 

The next few hours pass in an excited almost-blur. Izzy goes digging through the shed for weapons. Alec and Simon take the boat to fill up it’s tank, “just in case”. The rest of them gather around Clary as she tries to explain what to expect underwater, starting with what her city looks like. Though, she doesn’t use the word, and doesn’t seem to understand its meaning, and when Luke explains, she shakes her head.

“It’s not really like that,” she says sheepishly. “I mean, it’s more crowded than other places in the water, but there are no houses or borders.”

“So we can just walk in?” Maryse asks. “That seems like it would be to our advantage.”

Clary grimaces. “Well, sure, but that’s the thing - there are no boundaries, so we have no way of guessing where to find him or his goons. And anywhere in the water, he can track and attack me.”

“And there’s no other authority that can protect you?” Luke asks.

“There is no authority at all. Just the head of each family, usually the matriarch. And last I saw any of  _ them _ , they were being slaughtered by my father.” Clary shakes her head, once again disturbed by memories of the evil man. Maia laces their fingers together.

“Anywhere in the water…” Magnus says thoughtfully. “So you’re safe up here?”

“It takes a lot of power to be able to walk on land,” Clary says, her hand once more going to touch her necklace. “He doesn’t have that kind of power. Not yet, anyway.” She frowns. “If you’re suggesting I stay up here and out of trouble-”

Magnus laughs. “You’ve made your thoughts on  _ that  _ pretty clear. Why waste my breath?”

Clary smiles, relieved.

“Tell us about your father?” Maryse prompts. “What can we expect from him?”

Clary twists her hands in her lap, playing with the material of the pink sundress she's wearing this morning. “He's horrible,” she says. “Good with a knife, but won't hesitate to curse people, either. Most importantly, he won't show mercy.”

Maia wonders what that must be like, to speak with such certainty of your own father's wickedness, and with such hatred in your eyes. Maia doesn't have the best relationship with her own family, but at least she knows they're not irredeemably evil. Would it be easier, though, to simply hate the people who have hurt you? Or is the complicated nature of that relationship a blessing Maia has yet to recognize?

“I have the barest bones of a plan,” Magnus announces, snapping her out of her thoughts. “But it depends on finding the man we’re looking for without putting you in any more danger than necessary. So nobody suggest we use her as bait.”

“I can track him too,” Clary says. “But only underwater.”

“And you can do it quickly? Before  _ he  _ finds  _ you _ ?”

Clary swallows hard. “Yes.”

“Well, then,” Magnus sits back. “We might actually be able to pull this off.”

He says that he also needs the boat and whatever arsenal Izzy can put together before lunch, but things are looking pretty hopeful for the most part.

“Hey,” Clary whispers, tugging at the hand Maia has in hers. “Can we go sit on the beach?”

It  _ has  _ been a while since Clary was near the water. She must miss it. Besides, it will be nice to get a few minutes alone to maybe talk about what happened between them earlier.

“Sure,” Maia says. And then warningly adds, “But we keep far away from the actual water. Understood?” Clary nods understandingly and they set off.

A giddy smile spreads across Clary’s face at the mere sight of the water. Maia smiles too, at how adorable she looks, and speeds up their steps towards the beach. Maia has a plan too, at least for the next few minutes: she wants to kiss Clary senseless and talk to her about all their shared little moments and then kiss her some more. She wants them to figure it all out and enjoy some peace and calm before…

Well, before whatever has to happen, happens. None of them were kidding when they said they would fight for Clary, but the reality of it has yet to sink in. Will there actually be someone trying to kill them? Will  _ they  _ have to kill anybody? For some reason, Maia doesn’t think it will come to that. But what does she know about magic curses and murderous mermen?

Clary stops suddenly. She goes slack in Maia’s arms, eyes wide and face pale.

Maia sees it only a second later: there is something floating in the water, and something else glittering on the beach. With the sun in her eyes, it’s hard to make out what either one is, but it’s not the floating object or the shining one that have grabbed her attention.

It’s the light red tint to the water.

They can’t run, not with the way Clary’s still struggling to walk (especially now that she’s so shaken), but they speed up their steps as much as they can. They nearly trip countless times and by the time they make it to the shore, they’re both out of breath and Maia has more rocks in her sandals than she can count. They skid to a violent stop just before they reach the water.

And this is where Maia nearly screams. This is where Clary clamps one hand over her mouth and grabs Maia’s wrist with the other.

The glittering thing on the beach is scales that have been washed ashore.

Scales that clearly belong to the tail on the dead, mutilated body floating mere feet away from them.

“No…” Clary breathes, falling to her knees in the wet sand. “No, no, no…” She’s crying. This time, the tears don’t come silently, accompanied by a pained but resigned look in her eyes. Within moments she’s in hysterics, and all Maia can do is sit down beside her and hold her. Clary clings to her and cries some more, but her sobs slowly subside, until she’s simply sniffling and wiping at her eyes with the backs of her hands.

“This is…” She sniffs loudly. Maia, finally tearing her eyes from the gruesome sight, sees her drop her hands and clench them into fists. “This is a message. He knows where I am. He’s trying to scare me.”

“I don’t think so,” Maia says, her voice coming out shaking, but clear. “I think he’s trying to goad you into a fight. He can’t hurt you while you’re on land so he’s trying to get you to go back in the water.”

Clary grits her teeth. She looks at Maia with fire replacing the tears in her eyes. “Well, it’s  _ working _ .” She stands then, before Maia can protest, and stumbles her way over to the water, taking care to avoid the scales.

“Clary?” Maia says warningly. She grabs Clary’s hand, standing in ankle-deep water with her. Clary can’t  _ really  _ be thinking about doing this, right? They have a small army waiting just inside the house. They have weapons, transportation.  _ They’re  _ Clary’s shot at winning this thing. No matter how angry and upset, Clary must know that.

“Let’s go inside,” Maia says. She doesn’t know whether she meant for it to sound casual or like a demand, but it doesn’t matter, because the words come out as a desperate plea instead.

Clary blinks, as if only just recognizing her.

“I knew him,” she says. “The… _ body _ …in the water. I knew him.”

“I’m sorry,” Maia says. “I’m so sorry. Let’s go back home. We’ll tell the others and…we’ll figure this out, okay?”

Clary closes the space between them and kisses Maia softly on the cheek. She lingers there for a moment. Long enough for Maia to relax and drop her hand to grab Clary by the hips instead. Clary rests her head on Maia’s shoulder, just for a moment, and whispers, “I won’t let him hurt you, too.”

With that she steps back again, too quickly for Maia to stop her, and, with a determined look on her face, pulls that beautiful purple necklace off.

There is nothing but dread for a moment. Maia knows she opens her mouth to call out, to tell Clary to be careful. And she knows she starts to move, arms outstretched to grab Clary and bring her back to safety. But no sound comes out and her limbs freeze halfway through the motion, when a gut-wrenching scream tears its way out of Clary’s throat and she falls to her knees once more.

Of course, Maia knew what would happen if the necklace came off. But it’s still jarring to see it unfold in front of her. It renders her speechless, the way Clary’s flesh melds back together, scales and webs sprouting up where a second ago there had been nothing, bones cracking and rearranging into a strange new shape. Maia had always assumed magic was beautiful and shiny, or maybe a bit scary, but whimsical and fascinating nonetheless. But this…

This is just horrific.

“Clary!” Maia tries to shout. It comes out choked and horrified and sounds strange all of a sudden. She drops to her knees beside Clary and tries to reach for her again, more to offer comfort during what looks to be an excruciating ordeal than to stop her from fleeing. But as soon as the terrible and fascinating thing is over, Clary rolls over into the water without a backwards glance, and Maia can only barely see her shadow underneath the waves as she swims away into deeper and deeper waters.

 

“There’s a dead body on the beach, and Clary’s gone.”

Magnus and Izzy glance up from the table where they’ve laid out the makeshift weapons when Maia enters, shaking uncontrollably, Clary’s necklace clutched tightly in one hand.

“Oh my god,” Izzy says, running up to Maia, but hesitating when she reaches her. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Maia snaps. “But there’s a dead body on the beach, and Clary went back to protect us.”

To protect  _ her _ . Clary went to get herself  _ killed  _ to protect  _ Maia _ .

Maia wants to scream.

“Okay, it’s gonna be okay,” Magnus says, but he doesn’t look at all convinced by his own words. “We’ll fix it. We’ll find her.”

Izzy takes her phone out of her pocket and begins tapping on it furiously. “Alec and Simon will be back any minute now,” she says. “And then we can go out and-”

Maia stops listening. She quickly surveys the weapons on the table, if they can be called that. It’s mostly fishing equipment and old rowboat paddles and kitchen utensils, along with a single pair of rusty brass knuckles. Maia slips those on and grabs the largest knife she can find. She heads for the door. Izzy and Magnus exchange a look and run after her.

“You look pretty upset that Clary left without you,” Magnus notes. She turns to scold him for bringing up her feelings  _ right fucking now _ , only to see him glaring at her. “I politely ask that you not leave  _ us  _ with the same feeling.”

Maia slows her steps, then stops completely. He’s right. She’s frustrated and  _ needs  _ to be doing something, but this isn’t it. This will only make things worse. She begged Clary not to go alone, and she’s angry beyond words that Clary didn’t listen. She has to take her own advice now. The only way to stop more bloodshed and get Clary back is  _ together _ . Together with a plan.

“Okay,” she says to Magnus. “What was your plan from earlier?”

He grimaces. “A sneak attack. It won’t exactly work now. We need to find Clary.”

“And then what?” Izzy asks.

“Then…I guess we’ll improvise.”

Proving Izzy truthful, Alec and Simon return with the boat soon after. Magnus says about two words to them in explanation before they’re all filing back onto the boat and sailing out with probably more speed than they should be using.

Maia keeps her eyes on the water, searching for any sign of Clary. Simon sidles up to her.

“Hey,” he says. She doesn’t respond. “Maia.”

“Yeah?” she mutters. She’s afraid to blink, lest she misses a flash of Clary’s red hair under the water.

“We’re gonna find her.”

“I know,” she says. “I’m just hoping we’ll find her alive.”

He puts an arm around her and squeezes her shoulder in comfort.

“There!” Maryse cries from the other side of the boat. Simon and Maia rush to her side. There is no mistaking what she’s trying to point out: a trail of blood stretches across the surface of the water not far from where they’ve now stopped the boat.

“Alec, give me one of those full-face masks,” Maia demands. “I’m going to get her.”

Alec nods, digging through their supplies, then hesitates. “There’s only two.”

“So?”

“So,” he sighs and holds one of the two out to her, “only two people can go in, and there is a lot of ground to cover.”

“I’ll take the end closest to the boat, then,” Maia says, referring to the patch of water where the blood is thickest. She takes a deep breath, trying to silence her anxieties, and puts the mask on. “See you on the other side,” she says, and, after one last reassuring nod from Simon, grabs her knife again and lowers herself into the water.

 

It’s too dark to see.  _ Shit _ . She should have brought a light.

The good news is, she’s probably found the right spot - she doesn’t have to swim far before something - or someone - hits her as it passes, hard enough that she nearly drops the knife. Then there is an arm around her waist and she is being pulled to the side. As her eyes slowly begin to adjust to the dark, she finds herself looking into Clary’s shocked face.

In her relief at seeing her again, Maia forgets her anger and the danger they’ve put themselves in. That relief is gone the next moment when she notices the cut on Clary’s arm and the blood flowing in thin tendrils from under the various cuts in her dress.

“What the hell are you  _ doing _ ? Get out of here!”

Maia doesn’t hear Clary like one normally hears things. Though Clary’s lips move to form the words, her voice seems to only echo in Maia’s head. Maia’s not sure if she can give Clary a verbal answer, so she just draws her eyebrows together and shows her the knife.

Clary looks like she’s about to say something else, but something behind Maia catches her attention. She once again grabs Maia’s waist and this time swims down,  _ fast _ , and Maia looks up just in time to see a blade rush past above their heads. It nearly catches on her hair.

“Please,” Clary says. “Let me handle him.”

And then she’s swimming back up, claws sprouting from her hands as she does. Maia can’t help but admire her a little. The ferocity that Maia has glimpsed in her before is on full display here. The strangeness of her form fascinates Maia as both a scientist and as simply a woman infatuated with her. And now that it’s no longer twisting her legs into horrible shapes and drawing screams from her, the tail is beautiful to look at - sparkling and green, moving swiftly up and down to take Clary faster and faster…

…away from Maia.

Treading water to keep herself in place, Maia turns her head to follow Clary’s movements. The mermaid is far above her now, swimming headfirst towards a much larger, angrier merman with a dagger in one hand. Maia might be imagining it, or failing to see properly from this far away, but she’s pretty sure the man’s eyes are glowing.

They collide. The man swipes at Clary with his dagger, drawing blood from her waist. She ignores it, baring her teeth against the pain, and digs her claws into his neck. Before she can push them in deeper, however, he grabs her arm and twists her off him, then slashes at her with the blade again.

Maia swims towards them. Obviously. She’s not going to let Clary take on this creep alone. Hopefully Alec or Luke or someone will find them soon, too, and then it will be three against one. An easy win.

Clary scratches at the man again, and he takes the opportunity to bring the blade down on her hand. Clary retreats just in time.

He’s off-balance for just a split-second. Maia takes her shot.

The blade rips through the skin of his shoulder and blood flows out, and he turns to her with a grunt of pain and surprise. Unfortunately, the wound doesn’t seem to deter him much: it’s shallow and he simply switches the knife from one hand to the next, and turns to her sharply. Too quick for her to anticipate, he brings his elbow down on her face.

The impact cracks the mask and sends her reeling. He raises a hand towards her, eyes glowing brighter, and all Maia can think as death looms closer and closer is “ _ Clary… _ ”

“Maia!” Clary cries, and slams her body against her father’s, driving him away from Maia before he can use one of his infamous curses against her. With water pooling rapidly in her mask, Maia is forced to wrestle it off. She didn’t get a chance to take in a last breath. There is not much time left…

“Get off of me!” the merman grunts, trying to shake her off, swiping blindly at the water with his dagger. “I’m going to make you watch while I kill your little human!”

Maia doesn’t think that will be necessary - she’s already out of oxygen and water is forcing it’s way past her lips. Even as she tries to swim back towards them, and then dodges the blade the merman drops after Clary bites down hard on his arm, the edges of her vision are starting to go dark. Clary is probably going to be too busy fighting her father to watch Maia die.

Maia seeks her out with her eyes anyway. Might as well go out looking at the prettiest sight in the world.

Clary dodges another one of her father’s strikes. “Maia!” she cries again, as if she’s sensed Maia’s surrender to the waves. Red hair flows around Clary, framing her face in the deep, dark blue as she turns briefly and their eyes find each other. Her eyes don’t say  _ goodbye _ , or  _ save me _ . They say  _ please don’t leave me _ .

And, as if she’s hearing that otherworldly song on the beach again, Maia is suddenly so very not okay with dying.

She clamps her mouth shut and wills her vision to clear. It doesn’t obey, of course, but it’s nice to know that she has her  _ will  _ back.

She realizes the knife has slipped out of her grip, but only fallen a few feet. A shallow dive and she’s holding it again. She swims to Clary and the merman as the world darkens.  _ No _ . She has to hang on for just a little bit longer. She has to save Clary from this creep. And then…

Well, they’ll get there when they get there.

Clary sees her and the look of relief that floods her face is almost enough to breathe air back into Maia’s lungs. She barely dodges another one of her father’s blows before grabbing his arm and trying to wrestle the dagger out of his hand.  _ There _ . That’s Maia’s shot.

Her chest and her arms ache, but Maia pays them no mind. She swims closer and closer to the bitter, cursing man, and raises the knife above her head.

And then she brings it down with all her might.

She hears his screams echo in her head. Her fingers loosen around the handle of the blade. The water around her turns crimson with his blood, and she falls through it, weightless, all strength and determination spent.

She sees red, and then black, and then nothing at all.

 

Maia opens her eyes to a heavenly - and familiar - sight.

Clary stares down at her with bloodshot eyes, red hair framing her face, humming a tune Maia recognizes from the last time they were in this position. Except this time, Clary has tears in her eyes, Maia doesn’t feel sand underneath her, and they’re not alone - the whole family surrounds them in varying stages of crying and/or relief. Izzy, in particular, is very close, her sleeves rolled up and her hands nervously clasped together.

“Hey,” Maia tries to say, but instead coughs up water so violently that her whole body shakes. She realizes her shirt is unbuttoned - Izzy must have been giving her CPR, then.

“Hey, guys,” Maia says. Though her voice is hoarse, it does come out as actual words this time.

Immediately, Clary is on her, arms wrapping around Maia’s neck and relieved sobs escaping her. Maia hugs her back. The wet sundress, stained with blood and practically shredded now, sticks to Clary’s warm skin under her touch. And underneath that, the tail is still real.

“I was so worried!” Clary sobs. “Don’t ever do that again!”

“Promise,” Maia murmurs into her shoulder. “So long as you never do anything like that, either.”

Clary pulls back and looks at her, sniffling. “I just didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“I know,” Maia brushes Clary’s wet hair out of her face. “And I don’t give a shit. When we say ‘together’, we mean  _ together _ , alright?”

Clary nods and kisses her. On the cheek, on the jaw, on the lips, over and over again, tears still streaming down her face. If Maia wasn't so tired, she thinks she would be crying and kissing Clary too.

Clary hugs her again.  This time, someone else embraces Maia from behind, and she looks to see Simon with his chin on her shoulder and his arms around her. Then Luke pulls the three of them into a hug, and Maia leans against him. Soon, the rest of them join in the hug too, laughing and crying at the same time. Maia wants to tell them how much she loves them and how glad she is that they’re all okay, but she can’t find the words. She doesn’t think there are words to describe what she feels right now, surrounded by her closest friends in the world, in the arms of the girl she loves. The best end to the worst weekend of her life.

 

Clary sighs softly as she stretches out on the beach. Maia, in a large green sweater and wool socks, lounges beside her, reading aloud from a book.

The months since the death of Clary’s father have been about building and rebuilding. Clary and the others who survived the massacre have been working on healing their community, while Maia has bought a decrepit little house on the beach and is still working to fix it up.

But most importantly, these months have been about healing.  _ Together _ .

“Wait,” Clary says. She rolls over on her side, head resting on her elbow and tail swaying behind her. She’s still trying to find a way to improve her necklace, to make the transformation to and from human legs hurt less. In the meantime, Maia is more than content going to the beach to be with her.

Maia stops reading. She lowers the book and raises an eyebrow at her. “What’s up?”

Clary leans in and kisses her. “Nothing,” she says. “I love you.”

Miaa can’t help but laugh. She puts the book down and pulls Clary into her arms. The beach is cold this time of year, but Clary’s presence makes her feel warm inside.

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta-da! That's the end! Thank you all so much for sticking with this weird, self-indulgent story and for all your feedback thus far and in the future. Though at times I felt (and still feel) very unsatisfied with the way I wrote this story (at times it felt too silly and at times it felt too dark and other times I was confusing even myself!), and though you wouldn't believe it based on how long it took me to update, I really did enjoy writing this and I'm so glad I did. I hope you enjoyed reading it too <3


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